Many websites provide access to information that is hosted, stored, gathered, or otherwise maintained by that website operator. For example, an online retailer may provide users with a listing of products available for purchase along with a number of different types of metadata or other descriptive information associated with those products, which are maintained by that online retailer. However, publicizing this information exposes the website operator to web crawlers, scrapers, bots, or other automated systems attempting to gather information from the website operator. In addition to the computational resources consumed by the automated activity, a third party associated with the automated activity may also attempt to leverage the gathered information in a manner that may compromise the website operator's business objectives. At the same time, many existing techniques for preventing or otherwise discouraging automated activity can be intrusive or otherwise degrade the user experience for the legitimate customers of the website operator.